Waiting for the so-called Mattei plan the Government has been promising for months and which perhaps will begin to be revealed in the next few hours, the thoughts and work of Enrico Mattei, the visionary founder of Eni who died suddenly in 1962 in a mysterious plane crash about which many hypotheses have been intertwined but without any definitive certainty. But to speak carefully about Mattei we should know him and today the new book by Julius Sapelli, economic historian, always in love withEni. Its title - "The company, the soul and the forms: writings about Eni and for Eni" (published by il Mulino, 398 pages, 34 euros) already says it all. In the pages of Sapelli there is the world of Eni, Mattei's commitment to the restart of Italy, up to the growth and evolution of a large national and international entrepreneurial reality such as the six-legged dog Group. But it is above all the last pages which collect Mattei's writings and thoughts that remain particularly impressed. “Mattei – writes Sapelli – emerges as a man who is within a mission, who is aware of this and who works on it every day, with patience and energy. Here and there he can feel what could be defined as “the effort of the dream” that Mattei is realizing, and he knows it, but this realization is not simple, nor linear, nor is there a lack of obstacles and enemies”.
Mattei to students: “Never give up”
Two passages in particular from Mattei's speeches at the Eni School are striking and deserve to be remembered. The first at the opening of the 1958 academic year when Mattei, recalling the origins of his professional adventure in the oil group, says: “We began in an atmosphere of hostility. Nobody believed in Italian hydrocarbons: we had the hostility of the government and the hostility of private initiative: this is the truth." But Enrico Mattei's speech on 20 July 1958, at the end of the academic year, is also worthy of being framed. Mattei recommends to students: “You need tenacity, willpower and I advise you to never give up. In your difficult moments, think about the difficulties that we have overcome in silence, trying to move forward, think about how we managed and you will see that you too will be able to overcome yours. You will find many difficulties, sometimes it will seem impossible to move forward but the men who have the qualities and abilities move forward, they move forward alone without anyone being able to stop them".
Vision, effort, sacrifice, enthusiasm and strength of will, tenacity and desire for rebirth for the well-being of the country: this was Enrico Mattei. Let's not forget it.
